Zamboni Policy

Any Youth Association Adult (18 and older) is eligible to volunteer as a Zamboni driver. SPHYA offers opportunities to serve as a full-time driver (primary source of volunteer hours) or a part-time driver (secondary source of volunteer hours.)

SPYHA drivers are responsible to report any maintenance or safety issues/incidents to the SPYHA Zamboni Scheduler as soon as an issue has been identified.

With the exception of formal Zamboni Training, only one operator is allowed on the Zamboni during operation (no passengers.)

Sauk Prairie High School Teams will be responsible to provide drivers for High School practices and games. High School drivers will follow SPYHA Training Policies and Procedures but will be responsible for administering a separate schedule.

Only drivers trained and certified by SPYHA Staff are permitted to operate the SPYHA Zamboni. Training will be scheduled and conducted by approved SPYHA Training Staff, with the coordination of the SPYHA Zamboni Scheduler. Volunteers will be trained via the formal Zamboni Training Program to a high level of proficiency and safety. The Training Program typically requires four to five sessions of supervised training (these training sessions count towards annual volunteer requirements).

Additional training will be scheduled at the request of a volunteer or if a situation occurs requiring corrective training (i.e. safety incident.)

SPYHA Zamboni Scheduling does not utilize the SPYHA Volunteer Program via the SPYHA Portal.

The SPYHA Zamboni Scheduler maintains a separate online, interactive schedule and volunteer tracking tool. Monthly schedules will be posted no later than one week prior to the beginning of any given month. Only events requiring a resurfacing will be posted on the schedule. Times listed on the schedule indicate the time the event begins (or rather when the ice should be completed and the Zamboni doors closed.) Drivers should expect to begin resurfacing 15 minutes prior to the times listed on the schedule.

Because of the variable time nature of ice resurfacing, SPYHA calculates satisfaction of Volunteer Requirements on sheets of ice completed (Volunteer Credits) instead of Volunteer Hours. Full-time drivers are expected to complete 30 sheets of Qualified Ice during a full Youth season to satisfy Volunteer Requirements.

A Qualified Sheet of Ice is any event hosted at the SPARC that is not classified as a Weekday Youth Practice. Qualified Ice status will be listed on the Zamboni Schedule. Every sheet of Qualified Ice completed is worth 1 Volunteer Credit (for example: Youth Bantam Games require two sheets of ice, one prior to game start and one between the 2nd and 3rd periods; these events are worth 2 Volunteer Credits.)

Drivers are responsible to notify the Zamboni Scheduler if unable to accomplish a previously scheduled Zamboni event:

If the event is one week or more in the future – Driver will remove his/her name from the schedule and notify the Zam Scheduler

If less than seven days in future – Driver is responsible to find a replacement volunteer (i.e. send an email to the Zamboni Driver Distro List and confirm a replacement

Occasionally, Zamboni or rink maintenance requires SPYHA Staff to conduct a resurfacing outside of the normal scheduling process. If a driver is not notified and reports to the SPARC for a scheduled event to find the ice has been resurfaced, that driver will still receive all credits owed.

Once a driver has completed his/her annual Volunteer Requirements, each additional Qualified Sheet of Ice a driver completes will pay $5.00 of Association Credit towards the following year’s Association Registration Dues.

Special events hosted at the SPARC (such as Ultimate Hockey Tournament events) are eligible for both Volunteer Credits as well as $5.00 Association Credit (regardless if Annual Volunteer Credits are met). The SPYHA Zamboni Schedule will reflect these available credits.

Part-time drivers are eligible to earn $5.00 of Association Credit for every Qualified Sheet of Ice completed.